http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/ Engadget Mobile Comments for http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgetmobile.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/
Cingular ended 2006 with 61 million and Verizon with 59.1 million. This is just talking about direct retail subscribers. Cingular has a big chunk of the government and major businesses.

Verizon had 56.8 million retail subscribers and Cingular had 56.3 retail subscribers at the end of 2006. This isn't saying that NOW Verizon has more customers, because it doesn't, but at the end of 2006, Verizon had more "general public" subscribers than Cingular. We still have to wait until Q1 2007 Reports to see who's in the lead at the moment.
]]>Apr 11th 2007 3:21PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/
Either take the time to present the full story or don't bother attempting it. Sounds reasonable enough.

I would suggest that anybody interested in the true facts of this story find a reliable source to get the information from.

I would say nice try, but it simply wasn't even that. ]]>Apr 11th 2007 3:55PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 4:17PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 4:23PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/
Second, as for the govt, Verizon has the most govt users.

Third, I believe the major difference between the total customer numbers and these direct retail subs is that the total customer number takes into acct prepaids, which are not really where you make your money.

So no matter how you cut it, this is a favorable report for Verizon, and should be a wake up call to ATT. It's amazing how ATT/Cingular has squandered what was once a large lead, after their merger a few years back.]]>Apr 11th 2007 4:40PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/site your sources. Where do you come up with the fact that Verizon has more subscribers. Second, prepaid generates MASSIVE income due to the large per minute rate for any call made. Do the math. ]]>Apr 11th 2007 4:51PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 4:53PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 4:57PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 5:05PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 5:10PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/
This is all based on Q4-2006 information. We've seen that info before, but now mean that categorical, Verizon has the most subscribers in one catagory (the largest one) but not overall.

And they have the largest ARPU (average revenue per user) in terms of data but overall Sprint/Nextel has largest. (Another categorical win for Verizon but not overall)

But if you look closer at the Q4 2006 information, you'll see Verizon is, in fact, not catching up to Cingular in terms for total subscribers. Cingular added 2.4 million net subscribers. Verizon added 2.3 million net subscribers.

Verizon's Q4 profit fell while Cingular's tripled.

Quoting ibmtimes.com:
"That said, the vast majority of Verizon's new customers were monthly subscribers, whereas a third of AT&T's fourth-quarter gain consisted of "pay-as-you-go" users who tend to generate less revenue and switch providers more frequently. Overall, Verizon Wireless now has 56.8 million monthly subscribers, equaling 96 percent of its base. Verizon's "churn" rate of subscribers switching to rivals also came in lower than many forecasts, averaging 1.14 percent of the customer base per month."

To be honest, Verizon is doing a good job catching up. 2.3 million is impressive, but Cingular even 1up'd them with 100,000 more. If it wasn't for the iPhone, I'd think Verizon would have passed Cingular by the end of 2007.

Either way, competition is good. Verizon's working on Rev A and TV on your Cellphone (faster than Cingular is). Cingular is launching on broadening their HSDPA, launching Video Sharing and launching HSUPA (which will be followed by Video Calling) as well as that new voicemail thing which seems neato.]]>Apr 11th 2007 5:16PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/I would count VZ's and Cingular's retail customers as those folks with whom VZ or Cingular has a direct relationship. A wholesale customer is someone that gets service from some other marketer of wireless services, but that happens to be actually using VZ's or Cingular's network (neither VZ or Cingular have a direct relationship with a wholesale customer). From a marketing perspective, I beleive the retail customer count is what matters, and it seems that VZ has surpassed Cingular.
Keep up the great reporting work, Engadget.]]>Apr 11th 2007 5:53PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 7:03PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/
This isn't a matter of which carrier is better, it's a matter of fact versus fallacy. If Engadget was any kind of respectable source for information, some of these writers would be out of a job faster than you could look up some of the facts they misreport (which are ironically not that hard to find.)

"Simply citing a story" won't quite cut it when your entire purpose is to report accurate information. Are we all to assume that it would be totally fine for any other "journalist" just to "cite a story" without first checking the facts?

All in all, this entire situation is a disgrace. Some reliable resources might help.]]>Apr 11th 2007 7:16PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 11th 2007 11:36PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Apr 12th 2007 2:43AMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/
The other facts are that Verizon gets more data revenue from its subscribers, and has a lower churn rate than ATT.

These are objective facts; one may not like it, but they are the facts. Right now VZW is surpassing ATT in execution in the marketplace, largely because they are regarded as the more reliable network, in spite of ATT's bogus claims regarding dropped calls. VZW has just announced that it is investing an additional 6 billion dollars in their network infrastructure this year alone. That may explain why they have been eating away at ATT's lead for the last several years. If Cingular/ATT had had their act together, the gap would not have been narrowed.]]>Apr 12th 2007 8:40AMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/
And as far as capital expenditures on network infrastructure goes...nobody invests more into their network than AT&T (and that has been the case since 2003). ]]>Apr 12th 2007 3:46PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/by Dylan

I seriously started laughing out loud.
world wide tech...verizon has that, and with the new merlin data card, they got it all.

fastest data speed...that is whre I lost it, cingular..fast...data...BWAHAHAAHAHAH

fewest dropped calls.... yeah because if you don't have service it isn't a dropped call. everyone has outed that BS claim by cingular a million times.

but hey, at least you were entertaining dylan.]]>Apr 12th 2007 11:15PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/- Interview with head of AT&T's wireless division Stan Sigman

Q: AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre recently called Verizon the "cream of the crop" in the wireless business. What are you doing to help AT&T catch up? How will moving Cingular into AT&T's tent help?

A: Mr. Whitacre is right. Verizon's results are very commendable. I admire them for it. They don't have, in my opinion, the assets we have, the technology we have. There's no reason why we can't deliver better performance for our customers, for our shareholders and our employees. We've integrated the networks, integrated the operating system. It's all about building out and operating the best wireless network, having the most compelling products and services, having the best shopping experience in the stores. The new Experience stores show that we're delivering on that.

_________

From WirelessWeek.com

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=138538


]]>Apr 13th 2007 7:54AMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/May 10th 2007 8:56PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/04/11/verizon-retakes-us-wireless-subscriber-lead-from-atandt/Jun 29th 2007 11:19AM